


Lucky Coincidence

by Eliasisbiased



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Gymnastics, I'm Bad At Tagging, Kinda, adhd bokuto, its hinted at anyway, no beta we die like daichi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eliasisbiased/pseuds/Eliasisbiased
Summary: Koutarou’s first impression of gymnastics wasn’t ‘positive’ or ‘good’ in the least.or Bokuto gets introduced to gymnastics through his sister and things just go from there
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Lucky Coincidence

**Author's Note:**

> this is probably not what most of yall wanted because youre here for threw the facade out the window, which im so sorry that i havnt updated yet i promise that it hasnt been forgotten about. ive just been super busy in terms of school lately, and with exams coming up i need to put a lot of energy into that. but anyway its half term now so that means that i have a week of free time to myself. i will probably post a few more oneshots/drabbles over this week whilst i continue to work on my main fic so theres that to look forward to ig lmao.

Koutarou’s first impression of gymnastics wasn’t ‘positive’ or ‘good’ in the least. The first time that he had to even think about it was when he was being forced to take his little sister, Akiko, to her classes every Thursday, which was the last thing that he wanted to do. Sure, he loved his sister to pieces, and sure, he would do almost anything for her if asked, but taking her to gymnastics each week was taking him away from volleyball, and as a fourteen-year-old who had just been accepted into a private school for his skills in said sport, that was all he wanted to focus on. 

Still, there he was, stood in the doorway of the gym, it was small, which considering that the class was free and run by volunteers was understandable, you couldn’t spend too much money on the venue if you weren’t getting paid back for it. He looks at all the people in the gym and the first thing that comes to his mind is ‘this is so fucking girly,’ because all the girls here are just that. Almost all of them are dressed in pastel colors with their hair done up nicely in pigtails and braids to keep the hair out of their eyes, and they’re giggling amongst themselves in high pitched squeaky voices that all girls, aside from maybe his sister, seem to have, whilst they wait for their class to start.

He watches as Akiko runs off to the changing room without so much as a goodbye, and he’s left alone as he waits for her to get back. He supposes that he could just leave for a bit, come back when the class is over to take her back home, but his parents had told him to at least stay for the first session, just to make sure that the class went well. Koutarou saw the logic behind it, it just sucked that he would have to spend the next hour and a bit sitting around doing nothing.

Whilst he waits for Akiko to get back, he allows his eyes to wander over to the instructors that are going to be teaching the class. A man and a woman, and the man is currently practicing a routine whilst the woman spots him. Koutarou watches in amazement as he completes a series of backflips, cartwheels, and some other things that he doesn’t know the name of all in quick succession, before finishing. He high fives the woman with a wide grin on his face and goes off to take a sip from his water bottle. Koutarou’s fingers start to fidget. The same way that they had years ago when he first wanted to try playing volleyball. He’s pulled out of his thoughts by Akiko running out of the changing rooms to the group of girls, giving a big wave of her hands to Koutarou just as the class is about to start. 

The class starts and Koutarou stays sitting off to the side on a chair with a few of the other parents and older siblings of some of the girls there. Akiko turns around now and then, giving a small wave and smiling brightly. Koutarou returns the smile and waves.

All the while Koutarou’s eyes keep going towards the instructor as he demonstrates the basics of stretching to the rest of the class. It’s basic shit, even he knows how to stretch properly, and he’s almost certain that most of the girls in the class do as well. 

Maybe they don’t, they are pretty young after all, and probably don’t have that much experience in sports science like he’s had it drilled into his brain since he started to take volleyball seriously. Still, his fingers continue to fidget with curiosity and excitement despite his best efforts to keep still. He can’t help but think about how much he wants to join them, to do what the instructor can do, and a part of him is very aware that wouldn’t be able to do that in an instant, but he at least wants to give it a try.

The session ends and all the girls rush back to their parents. Akiko rushes up to him, arms open wide, jumping up and pulling him into a tight hug. “I take it you enjoyed yourself,” he says through bouts of laughter, adjusting his grip on her torso so he can return the hug just as eagerly.

“Mhm,” she hums, pulling back slightly, “you should join us sometime, I think that you’d like it,” she says, as though she knew exactly what he had been thinking.

Koutarou sputters “What?” he half shouts, “Pshhh, I doubt that, besides, I don’t think they would let me join even if I wanted to.”

Akiko looks back at him, confusion written all over her face. “Sure they would, the class is for anyone,” she pauses, thinking, “do you want me to ask to make sure?” Before Koutarou can even say anything she’s already hopped down from her brother's arms to run over to where the instructor was. “SENSEI!!” she yells, and Koutarou almost wants to tell her off for yelling so loud inside, because her volume was loud enough to make even him flinch. Still, the instructor seems unbothered, turning to her and crouching down to her level.

“Yes, Akiko?” he asks.

“Can Koutarou join in next week?” she’s beaming from ear to ear as she says it, pointing back at her brother to point out who he was, in case he couldn’t already tell from the same wide eyes and crazy hair. Koutarou smiles softly at her, despite the raging anxiety of what the man in front of him would think thrumming through his veins. 

“I don’t see why not,” he says, and Koutarou looks up to meet his face, hands fidgeting as the other lifts his hand up in the offer of a handshake. “I’m Kohei,” he says as Koutarou takes his hand and gives it a firm shake, “just be sure to bring clothes to practice next week and we should be good to go.”   
Koutarou nods, and thanks Kohei as he picks up his sister again to carry her home as she talks excitedly the whole walk back.

//

Next week comes around sooner than expected and Koutarou comes in, already dressed in a plain shirt and shorts. His sister runs off to change, just like last time, and that’s when it hits him that ‘oh shit’ he’s actually going to be doing this. He’s worried that he’s not going to fit in, and sure, the class allows anyone who wants to learn gymnastic to join, and sure, its aimed at all ages, but from what he can tell, the oldest person other than him there is around 12, and is still able to fit in pretty well with the other girls than he thinks that he ever could.

The session starts, and Koutarou takes a deep breath before going to line up with everyone else, making sure that Akiko is at least somewhere nearby if only to keep his nerves from getting too much to handle. 

It goes surprisingly well. Koutarou is already relatively strong and flexible from years of playing volleyball, so he’s able to pick up a lot of the skills pretty quickly. He’s nowhere near being able to do a backflip yet, but he was able to do a cartwheel, and that’s something at least. It keeps him motivated to come next week, to keep on working harder at it, almost as hard as he works at volleyball.

He keeps coming to practice every week, and he keeps improving. To his surprise, he starts to get along with the other girls in the class. Turns out, they think that it’s the coolest thing ever that he wants to do gymnastics and are completely fascinated by his strength. He often finds himself being asked if he can carry them and give them piggyback rides as he does with Akiko. 

One person that he finds himself particularly getting along with is the oldest girl in the group, Taniko, whilst she was quiet at first, once he got to know her, she was hilarious, constantly making sarcastic remarks and clever jokes in lessons about anything that came to mind. She always made Koutarou laugh about one thing or another, and in return, he was able to make her laugh as well, even if in comparison, his jokes were far inferior to hers.

//

When he first managed to complete a proper sequence, it feels amazing. He’s in high school by now, working his ass off to get his team to nationals, whilst simultaneously trying to be the best player possible. Gymnastics continues to be something that he enjoys, and it helps him to be able to spend some time each week to be able to just shut down and focus on practicing the movements.

He lifts his head, chest heaving and heart pounding in his chest. He doesn’t even remember half of what he was doing, even if he had learned them before, but what he does know is that he must have done it right, because everyone is cheering, and he hadn’t fallen or stumbled partway through like he has done many times before. He feels proud, so proud. This is what he had wanted to do when he first started, and now he had done it!

Kohei pats him on the back, and tells him how well he had just done, and so does everyone else in the class, high fives and excited shouts passed between them all as they slowly settle down so that the next person, Taniko, can perform.

//

He gets to his second year of high school before he ends up leaving, the coach had recommended it, saying that if he wanted to continue to improve and pursue volleyball professionally, he’s going to have to be more invested. He gets it, he really does, but that doesn’t make it any less upsetting to have to say goodbye to the group that he’s become so attached to. He’ll still be able to see them now and then. Akiko still goes every week and is always sure to invite Koutarou to all of her presentations.

//

He comes in one day, at the end of his third year. This time there isn’t a presentation, just a normal session. He didn’t even tell Akiko this time, and instead decides to surprise them all by showing up halfway through practice. As he walks in, he yells a greeting to the group and everyone turns their heads towards him, the drills that they were doing just a moment ago completely forgotten about. There are loads of new faces, as well as a few missing ones. Taniko isn’t here anymore, which is sad, but she’s starting high school next year, so she probably wants to focus on her entrance exams above anything else.

He goes around the group, handing out high fives to all the faces he knows and greeting all of the ones that he doesn’t, not sure at how comfortable they would be if he were to just high five them out of the blue, without even knowing his name. He ruffles Akiko’s hair, messing it up a bit more than necessary, just to be annoying. 

Kohei comes over to him and pulls Koutarou into a hug. “It’s been a while,” he says through a grin. Truthfully it had only been a month or so at most, but he still nods in agreement.

“Yeah, I suppose it has,” he says. “I’m graduating soon,”

“You are? God, you’re joking!”

“Nope! And I’ll be going pro pretty soon, with the volleyball.”

Kohei’s grin gets even wider, “That’s amazing! Tell me when your matches are I’ll watch all of them.”

“You really don’t have to do that,” Koutarou says.

Kohei laughs, “Of course I do, now be sure to show off when you’re on the court, I’ll be watching.”

**Author's Note:**

> wow, you actually made it all the way through even with all my grammar mistakes, i applaud you dude/pos. 
> 
> both kohei and taniko were named after famous japanese gymnasts if you didnt pick up on that haha, also once again i feel like the ending is kinda shit, but im more proud of this one than i was with support so theres that. constructive critisism is always welcome i love to hear what people have to say about my writing, anyways, until next time my dudes ^_^


End file.
